Publishers don't want new thriller writers?

[Brian G Turner]

Janet Reid - aka, QueryShark - mentioned the following in a recent query analysis:

This is not a thriller. This is psychological suspense. And that's good for you, cause thrillers are harder to sell right now.

Surprised, I asked her about this on Twitter, and she replied:

The shelf is VERY full right now.

QueryShark on Twitter

In other words, because existing thriller writers are selling so well, publishers are no longer looking for next new talent - because signing and promoting them will take shelf-space away from existing bestsellers.

A process with its own logic, but still seems like madness to me.

Thrillers are the second biggest-selling fiction genre, and routinely dominate the New York Times and Amazon bestseller lists.

What next - no more romance writers, because there are enough of those already?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

A process with its own logic, but still seems like madness to me.

Hollywood is the same. They'd rather do a remake or sequel than risk a genuinely new story even in a popular genre.

What next - no more romance writers, because there are enough of those already?

I think that's been true for years. As long as the "source" doesn't dry up. They even do a lot of repacked re-releases, often two or three titles in a single book as most are barely novella length.

Thrillers are the second biggest-selling fiction genre, and routinely dominate

With same names. I know people that AUTOMATICALLY buy every new hardback that has "Clive Cussler" on cover somewhere (a lot have been "co-written", with at least the writer credited unlike the ghost written Leslie Charteris "Saint" books. When he got successful he went for the Hardy Boys model of Stratemeyer Syndicate).

All media companies like to sell more of the same and the larger a company is the less "risks" it takes. Bureaucracy.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

She didn't say they aren't looking, just that new thrillers are harder to sell. I'm guessing that publishers have already pretty much filled their lists for the next couple of years with books by proven writers in that genre, and that anything by somebody new would need to show extraordinary promise before getting more than a quick glance and rejection. If someone comes along who looks like they'll be the next big thing in thrillers, publishers will probably be fighting over the manuscript. On the other hand, anyone who thinks it will be easy to break into the field because it's so popular right now will be wrong.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

The market does this. It's part of the reason why Inish Carraig didn't sell - dystopian Was saturated.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

It's part of the reason why Inish Carraig didn't sell

And you are not yet as well known as Clive Cussler, Steven King, Ursula Le Guin, C.J. Cherryh

 

[Kieran Song]

Thank goodness for the self publishing route then!

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I think large publishers are shooting themselves in the foot and making themselves increasingly obsolete. I've watched self-publishing change massively in the past seven years since I first finished Mayhem. To be honest it would take a really attractive offer for me not to self publish a book. There are advantages to traditional publishing still (easier access to bookshops, libraries and awards etc) but even those walls are starting to come down a bit. In my area local bookshops and craft shops are being more open to the idea of self publishers than they were even last year. And I've loved having a greater creative control over my work and being able to put back in the things beta readers loved but agents didn't.

 

[Brian G Turner]

What's really bizarre about this is that we keep getting reports about how there are fewer book stores, and less space on the shelves of those still trading.

It seems like madness for the big traditional publishers to continue to chain themselves to that as their main sales model.

Consumers clearly want to buy thrillers - the demand is proven. Publishers should be feeding it, not restricting themselves and their own sales potential.

Honestly, is there anything about the modern world that the big publishers actually understand?

 

[pambaddeley]

Yes this isn't a business model followed in other retail areas is it - I mean, the big makers of biscuits or cakes or chocolate bars or ready meals or whatever don't say 'There are quite enough of those so we won't launch any more'.

But there's been nothing rational in publishing since it moved away from being a business run by people who loved books into bigger and bigger conglomerations where publishers were continually taken over and amalgamated, and the businesses owning them have a beancounter mentality with no background in books at all. This process became terminal in the UK with the abolition of the net book agreement. I used to attend writers' conferences and at that period the editors who attended and gave talks lamented the fact that the publishers now had to give huge discounts to be taken on by supermarkets or big booksellers like Waterstones, and only guaranteed best sellers, often written by celebrities, got a look in. Plus the publishers had to pay big money to e.g. have their books included in the front of shop tables in the big booksellers, often as part of a 2 for 1 or other discount deal that further reduced their profits.

This discounting has had a pernicious result as we know, and is a big driver behind the reluctance to take on new writers, which was there even in the 70s onwards but has got increasingly worse because with the small profit available, each book must be a best seller. It's a vicious circle in effect. The mid-list was sacrified, certainly once the net book agreement went, though I think things were difficult before that, and writers who take several books to build are too risky to take on - Ian Rankin has said that if he was starting now, he wouldn't have got anywhere as his Rebus books didn't take off till about number 6 or 7.

 

[WaylanderToo]

Honestly, is there anything about the modern world that the big publishers actually understand?

I think you can say that about Hollywood and the 'music biz' too - actually ESPECIALLY about those 2 moribund business models